Interview with
Alice Bedward

Hopelessness and
helplessness are things that I observe right now, primarily because of the
imbalance of work and life these past few days. The new project management role
that I’m working on is taking its (un)rightful toll, and the seemingly day-to-day
mundane tasks, i.e. writing, feels like big milestones that I have to
accomplish. However, as luck would put it, it’s been an awesome week full of
events, encounters, and more happenings.

One of which is this
share-worthy and remarkable written interview about one of my most preferred
helpful start-ups of all time:Helpling. As I’ve revealed a
couple of times now, I am very much keen on working on anything related to start-ups, be it projects,
passion-projects, or what-have-yous, and I’ve had several serendipitous
encounters with this particular start-up. Their
platform, people, and principles are not only venerable, their overall reach is
universal. Of course, I appreciate it even more, because I’m into start-ups,
but I widely believe that anyone can appreciate, and be attracted to Helpling!

This time around, I
virtually met one of their quick-and-efficient managers based in the
Helpling-homeland: headquarters in Germany. She
has an intense multicultural experience, and I am completely blown away by the
myriad of remarkable things to say about start-ups, travels, and Oktoberfest
goals (yes, take me back to Germany!).

Germany is indeed
all sorts of spectacular, and Helplingproves that it is so. It’s all hopeful and
helpful in this side of the start-up, and I can only hope that I can work in
such amazing culture someday soon, who knows? :) Lock in your view
over here, and read through this informatively stirring interview about this
fantastic start-up culture.

Bowdy: Can you tell
us a little bit about yourself and where you are from?

Alice:I was
born in Cornwall, at the south-westernmost part of England, but I don’t
remember very much of the area. My family moved around a lot as I was growing
up, first to Wales, then the United Arab Emirates, and then to Australia. I
later relocated to London to study at UCL, before travelling to Sweden to study
journalism. Whilst I was in Sweden, I decided that I wanted to start my
professional career overseas, which is what brought me to Germany in 2015. I
first started working for a small start-up in Berlin, and later opted to join
the Helpling team to work in marketing and SEO. I now get to work with the UAE,
Australian, and Singaporean markets, helping to spread the word about
Helpling’s home cleaning services.

Bowdy: What are the
three things that people would be surprised to know about Germany, and why they
should come visit?

Alice:

1.) Oktoberfest is not in October.Unlike
the name suggests, Oktoberfest actually begins in September, and ends on the
first weekend of October. In fact, the Munich Oktoberfest, locally known as
Wiesn, is already over for this year. Roughly 5.6 million people visited this
year’s famous beer festival, and consumed over 6 million litres of beer.
However, you can still enjoy a beer in Munich at any time of the year, as the
city is home to over 60 beer gardens and traditional beer halls.

2.) University is free, even for non-citizens.With the exception
of some private institutions, university study was made free of charge in
Germany for national and international students in 2014. After German
politicians decided that tuition fees were “socially unjust”, thousands of
international students have headed to Germany to study either English or German
language courses, at some of the world’s leading universities.

3.) Germany efficiency is a bit of a myth!Berlin’s infamous
Brandenburg Airport was originally scheduled to open in 2010, but a series of
delays due to poor management, construction planning, and corruption, has meant
that it’s still not operational. Even now, it’s not exactly clear when the
airport will be ready for service, which has made it a running joke in Germany,
a country which normally prides itself on efficiency and punctuality.

Having said that,
Germany has a lot to offer, whether you’re looking to study, start your career,
or just see the sights as a tourist. There’s an endless list of things to do in Germany, from visiting more recent cultural and historical sights, to exploring
medieval castles and villages, and sampling Germany’s famous wurst und bier.

Bowdy: What is it
like working in a start-up company in Germany? The Good, The Bad, The Funny

Alice:From its
early days in 2014, Helpling has grown to into the leading online platform for
on-demand home services outside the United States. However, as a young tech
company, Helpling still has a start-up feel with flat hierarchies, rapid
decision making, and a lot of personal responsibility. You can learn more about
business in a start-up environment in a shorter time, than you can in much
larger and more traditional companies.

The good:Almost half of start-up employees
in Berlin are not German citizens, which means that the city’s start-up work
force is more diverse than Silicon Valley’s. On an average working day, you’ll
encounter many people with different experiences and ideas, which can lead to
more interesting creative developments, stronger connections to global
marketplaces, and better adaptability to change. One of the biggest draws to
the start-up scene for many expats in Berlin is that companies such as Helpling
are constantly expanding operations into new markets and new countries. Not
only is there a lot of work for programmers and developers, but native speakers
from various backgrounds are needed to properly support growth in foreign
markets. You don’t need to speak fluent German to work in Berlin!

The bad:Many people in managerial positions
at start-up companies are very young. In my previous role at a much smaller
start-up than Helpling, there were very few older or more experienced employees
in the office. That meant that there was a large scope for individual decision
making, but no prior experience to learn from. Youth and inexperience are one
way to approach new ideas and develop new solutions, but it’s not always the
key to success. Sometimes a bit of prior knowledge and experience can save
start-ups from making costly mistakes. At Helpling, it’s great to work
alongside experienced and talented colleagues, who have real industry know-how
and well developed professional skills.

The funny:Every year Helpling throws a big summer party for all its
employees in Berlin. This year the main event was kept secret until the very last
minute, but we were told to bring a spare change of clothes. We ended up
building rafts out of oil drums and bits of old wood, and racing them down the
Spree River. Quite a few people fell in the water, so while it’s safe to say
that the Helpling team is very good at digitising the market for household
services, we’re not so great at raft building!

Bowdy:Tell us your typical day at work.

Alice:I like
to start the day early and head into the office around 8, to catch up on email
and check-in with teams on other time zones. Slightly later in the morning I’ll
use SEO tools such as Searchmetrics, SEMrush, and Ahrefs to keep track of our
SEO performance across the AU, AE, and SG markets, and to keep an eye on the
competition. I might need to make changes to particular pages, or create new
ones based on what our customers are searching for online, alongside performing
more general keyword research and writing reports. I work closely with the
marketing and social media teams to produce interesting digital content, and
often collaborate with bloggers, so after lunch I answer another round of email
and attend meetings. The rest of my working day is then spent on various
projects, which often change from one week to the next. At the moment I’m
redesigning some of the pages on our UAE website, to make them more customer
friendly.

Bowdy: Apart from
your day job, do you have other passion projects you are currently involved in?

Alice:Outside
of work I try to make up for sitting at a desk for 9+ hours every day. I often
go jogging before or after work, and spend a lot of time exploring Berlin on
foot on the weekends. There’s so much history and interesting architecture in
Berlin, and I’m trying to visit as many Cold War sites as possible whilst I’m
here. Plus, one of the best things about being based in Germany is that you’re
only a short flight or train journey away from the rest of Europe, so I also
like to travel to new places every once and awhile. Earlier this year I was
able to visit Latvia and Slovakia, and I’m currently planning a trip to
Belarus.

Bowdy:Any advice for people who would like to work
in a start-up company in Europe?

Alice:Don’t be afraid of moving to a country
where you don’t speak the official language(s). Many start-ups use English as
their working language, and hire native speakers of other languages from far
and wide to work on projects in overseas markets. At Helpling there are a mix
of German, English, Australian, Indian, Dutch, Italian, Polish, and French
employees in the marketing department alone. Language skills that you take for
granted at home might just be an asset overseas.

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Bowdy is an amateur adventurer, a coffee sleepyhead, and a start-up rooter, with a penchant for classic-looking photos. At last count, he has visited some 52 countries, and is now living in Singapore. He's always in search of fascinating routines to exploit, within the edges of after-office hours and (un)limited holidays.